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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
A 2023 Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Best International Film, 2022's All Quiet on the Western Front is the fourth screen adaptation of the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque that documents the ugliness of World War I through an emotionally charged motion picture experience when it stays on the battlefield.
The story opens with a wide-eyed German teenager named Paul who enlists in the German army with his best friends Albert and Muller, pumped to serve their country in World War I, but as the story progresses, it whittles down to a look at the war through Paul's eyes.
Initial reticence occurred for this reviewer when it's revealed that the Oscar-nominated adapted screenplay is in German without subtitles, but a lot of my discomfort with this vanquished as I found the exquisite attention director Edward Berger put into the visuals provided here as well as the emotion of what these soldiers experience made it pretty easy to understand exactly what was going on when the story was on the actual battlefields. It was when the story moved from the battlefield to the strategizing of the military leaders where the film seems to shut out the viewer who doesn't comprehend German. The one exception to this was the scene where Germany and France sign the armistice, where what was going on was crystal clear.
Loved the opening scene where the young would e soldiers are being instructed by a leader and the camera pans across the anxious young faces who are thrilled to be going into this very ugly and dangerous war. The way they listened to the opening speech and the way they responded with thunderous cheers was a little squirm-worthy, making it obvious that these kids didn't have a clue what they were getting into. Yes, I used the word kids because I've noticed in the last couple of war films that I've seen that most of the soldiers are in their teens.
The scenes on the battlefield provide the carnage that one would expect, but the most effective scenes of battle were the one on one encounters between two soldiers that take the movie out of those underground bunkers, often producing an actual movie within the movie. Especially moving was an encounter that Paul has with an enemy soldier where he stabs him several times but he refuses to die. He then finds pictures of the soldier's family on him and it's almost implied that he might have even known this guy before the war.
Berger's attention to the look of this film is spectacular. The settings for this story are all bathed in serious gray and mud tones. And just as Sam Mendes did in 1917, there is extraordinary use of the tracking shot as the soldiers are followed through the underground bunkers that initially appear to be sanctuary for the soldiers, but as the film progresses, e learn there is no such thing as sanctuary in war. The film also reminds us how precious normal human functions like eating and sleeping get short shrift when you're a soldier. There are scenes of soldiers drinking muddy water like it's champagne.
In addition to the Best Picture, International Film, and adapted screenplay nominations. the film has earned six other Oscar nominations, including production design, visual effects, sound, and the wonderful musical score that doesn't frame every second of the movie, but served it in unique fashion. Didn't understand a single word said onscreen in this film, but was still riveted to the screen.
A 2023 Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Best International Film, 2022's All Quiet on the Western Front is the fourth screen adaptation of the classic novel by Erich Maria Remarque that documents the ugliness of World War I through an emotionally charged motion picture experience when it stays on the battlefield.
The story opens with a wide-eyed German teenager named Paul who enlists in the German army with his best friends Albert and Muller, pumped to serve their country in World War I, but as the story progresses, it whittles down to a look at the war through Paul's eyes.
Initial reticence occurred for this reviewer when it's revealed that the Oscar-nominated adapted screenplay is in German without subtitles, but a lot of my discomfort with this vanquished as I found the exquisite attention director Edward Berger put into the visuals provided here as well as the emotion of what these soldiers experience made it pretty easy to understand exactly what was going on when the story was on the actual battlefields. It was when the story moved from the battlefield to the strategizing of the military leaders where the film seems to shut out the viewer who doesn't comprehend German. The one exception to this was the scene where Germany and France sign the armistice, where what was going on was crystal clear.
Loved the opening scene where the young would e soldiers are being instructed by a leader and the camera pans across the anxious young faces who are thrilled to be going into this very ugly and dangerous war. The way they listened to the opening speech and the way they responded with thunderous cheers was a little squirm-worthy, making it obvious that these kids didn't have a clue what they were getting into. Yes, I used the word kids because I've noticed in the last couple of war films that I've seen that most of the soldiers are in their teens.
The scenes on the battlefield provide the carnage that one would expect, but the most effective scenes of battle were the one on one encounters between two soldiers that take the movie out of those underground bunkers, often producing an actual movie within the movie. Especially moving was an encounter that Paul has with an enemy soldier where he stabs him several times but he refuses to die. He then finds pictures of the soldier's family on him and it's almost implied that he might have even known this guy before the war.
Berger's attention to the look of this film is spectacular. The settings for this story are all bathed in serious gray and mud tones. And just as Sam Mendes did in 1917, there is extraordinary use of the tracking shot as the soldiers are followed through the underground bunkers that initially appear to be sanctuary for the soldiers, but as the film progresses, e learn there is no such thing as sanctuary in war. The film also reminds us how precious normal human functions like eating and sleeping get short shrift when you're a soldier. There are scenes of soldiers drinking muddy water like it's champagne.
In addition to the Best Picture, International Film, and adapted screenplay nominations. the film has earned six other Oscar nominations, including production design, visual effects, sound, and the wonderful musical score that doesn't frame every second of the movie, but served it in unique fashion. Didn't understand a single word said onscreen in this film, but was still riveted to the screen.